Get him involved in the group and team dimension--the reduced court, ball, racket thing at the club. Inter club matches, challenge ladders. Recruit his friends. Hopefully junior high tennis if it exists and eventually high school tennis.

Don't push him into tournaments unless that seems a natural evolution and watch out for the toxicity that can permeate that environment.

most kids who stay with tennis through puberty and beyond in my experience either get friends to play with them or make friends within the club/facility they are playing.
fun is very important,
developing a positive self-image as a tennis player
give them a good technical foundation to build on.
to make them good competitors and enjoy the pressure of matches, praise them on their ability to work and train hard and improve.
donīt necessarily praise talent or results.
if you praise them on their work ethic they will train harder.
if you praise them on talent and results, the danger is that they will find it difficult to play against better players for fear of losing and therefore losing their self-image as talented.

most kids who stay with tennis through puberty and beyond in my experience either get friends to play with them or make friends within the club/facility they are playing.
fun is very important,
developing a positive self-image as a tennis player
give them a good technical foundation to build on.
to make them good competitors and enjoy the pressure of matches, praise them on their ability to work and train hard and improve.
donīt necessarily praise talent or results.
if you praise them on their work ethic they will train harder.
if you praise them on talent and results, the danger is that they will find it difficult to play against better players for fear of losing and therefore losing their self-image as talented.

the best way to teach tennis young players is to focus on tracking the ball, hand eye coordination, watching the ball spin, making sure you run to the ball naturally and make clean contact every hit. Once your son perfects these skills, he can focus on more technique to advance his game. focusing too much on technique first will hurt his tracking skills.

for more info, try youtubing the the youtube channel PlayModernTennis. or youtube Oscar wegner.

i know he's only 8 years old, but when he's older, have him read the book The Inner Game of Tennis. it's amazing

I won many high school #1 singles tournaments using this info.
also, i still hit against my basement wall lol

update - signing him up for a winter program at local club... 1 hour/wk.

a question -

I didn't pay much attention in the beginning so he started hitting 2 handed from the right side (like a 2hbh for a leftie)... but he is right handed.

what do I do?

Hi luvforty...Glad my book, Tennis Mastery, has been helpful. Yes, getting kids comfortable with the continental grip for all the stroke associated with that grip (high level strokes), the serve, the volley, the two-handed backhand, and overhead, will save a great deal of time and frustration for your son as he progresses...and will help him reach his potential.

Regarding the two-handed backhand on the forehand side, try teaching him the conventional two-handed forehand as described in my book...(Bartoli, Seles, Peng etc pros using it), Since he is comfortable using two hands on this side, just move his dominant hand down to the conventional forhand position and move his left hand up to the upper position. (Be wary of my recommendations of what to avoid and look for when using the two handed stroke with the cross-handed grip. Make sure they wrists don't cross over on the backswing. keep the elbows wide apart.)

Also, if you haven't already, try looking at my 8 part article on TennisOne.com called, "Training an 8-year old" where I document the actual training of my daughter using all the methods, drills and progressions of her becoming a high level player within a year. These are the same progressions that I've used to train hundreds of ranked and highly skilled junior players over the years. Since your son is 8, you might enjoy actually seeing how an 8-year old GIRL masters the volley, slice and hybrid serves, and groundstrokes and overhead in a very short period of time.

Best of luck to your son! And, others have offeres some helpful information here too!

Sureshs, I focus beginners on the volley and serve first, as these are typically the weakest part of players who are trying to develop their game because they never master the feel and comfort of the continental grip. The two-handed backhand is the natural progression moving to ground strokes since the conventional two-handed backhand uses a continental grip on the dominant hand's position, (in most cases), and then the forehand relatively quickly there after.

The problem with teaching the forehand first, (from my experience), is that it emphasizes the eastern forehand/semi-western grip which is typically the only stroke that uses this grip. (Among skilled players!) Thus, I make sure the kids (and adults) have gained comfort and familiarity with the continental grip before moving on to the grip change and the forehand stroke.

However, this is all very relative to various variables...namely, how quick can a player make the differenciation between the grips, how fast they have created a commanding, 'repeatable, reliable' swing path, etc. We are talking only a few weeks at best before we move players to the forehand. This is because of the drills and exercises that we employ to help speed up this development. (See my drills on TennisOne if you haven't seen the various "rounding out drills" and progressions drills we teach.)

Hope that makes sense! Of course, pros and coaches don't have to follow my recommendations...it is just that I've seen how hard it is for many players (juniors and adults) once they have become comfortable with the eastern forehand grip first.

I try to be as effecient and save as much time and frustration for my students as possible.

About two-handed forehand, I feel that kids need to have very good footwork in order to be successful. They will have to deal with balls that come back a lot faster as they get older. They might be able to hit harder with two-handed now but wouldn't you think single-hand, forehand open stance suit today's game better?